TCPIP

[beesh]

We have multiple users with HP laptops that connect from home to our server and also come into the office and connect. They must change their IP to static when they are in the office. Is there somewhere in IP properties to set to remember these settings? I know in win98 the static number used to just get greyed out when you switched to obtain address AUTO. The users are constantly reentering numbers incorrectly when they connect from the office.

[Karl Rohwedder]

I assume your HP laptops are NOT running OpenVMS, the operating system this forum is about...so may should select another forum.

But can't this be achieved by using different hardware profiles in windows?

regards Kalle

[Hoff]

Consider the use of the OpenVMS DHCP Server that is available within TCP/IP Services in all recent releases and within most (all?) third-party IP stacks for OpenVMS; most any network server and most any server operating system available can issue IP network addresses dynamically, including OpenVMS.

If you post up the version information with the following OpenVMS DCL command sequence:

$ UCX
SHOW VERSION
EXIT

we can then help you toward configuring the DHCP server for OpenVMS for your version, and which can then allow your client Microsoft Windows, Linux, OpenVMS, Mac OS X and other systems to more easily auto-configure into the network.

And HoffmanLabs configures these wired and wireless networks for OpenVMS, and for other platforms. (Presently dealing with a mixture of OpenVMS, Mac OS X Server (and client), Windows and Linux systems, both wired and wireless. It's actually pretty easy to set up, though some clients are more painful than others. Though the DNS server can be a bit of "fun.")

Stephen Hoffman
HoffmanLabs

[Phil.Howell]

XP with latest service pack provides this,
so you can now have both "general" and "alternate" configurations.
Phil

[Art Wiens]

I think the root of your problem is:

"They must change their IP to static when they are in the office."

Why?! They probably don't have static IP addresses at home so there would be no conflict when they came back to the office.

Sorry if this sounds harsh, but having users enter their IP address on a frequent basis is "insane"!

Find a solution to negate the requirement for a static IP on the client when they're in the office.

Cheers,
Art

[beesh]

Ya unfortunately we are a nonprofit company and funds are limited. This is a remote location to our main server.

I will try the alternate config setting.

[Art Wiens]

What cost is involved? DHCP server is a very common "builtin" function with most server based TCPIP software (as Hoff pointed out even on VMS with TCPIP, TCPware or Multinet), and certainly most modern network devices (routers, vpn concentrators, modem pool devices) typically have DHCP server capability.

I'll ask again, why do they need static IP's when they're in the office?

And BTW, does this have anything to do with VMS?

Art

[Jan van den Ende]

beesh,

>>>Ya unfortunately we are a nonprofit company and funds are limited.
<<<

... yeah, and the cost of wasted employee time "is not seen", so that is no cost, eh??

Sounds indeed like the ususal reckoning in non-profit (but, alas, too often in "commercial" organisations as well).

Make a rough estimate of the time spent unnecessarily each time, multiply by users, multiply by average salary, compare that to the "cost" of enabling DHCP, and present it to management.

Then you willl have done what you can and should, but do not get your hopes up too high :-(

fwiw,

Proost.

Have one on me.

jpe

[Jan van den Ende]

Oh,

I just noted: you are new here.

WELCOME to the VMS Forum!

Proost.

Have one on me.

jpe

[Hoff]

There is IP network configuration information not in evidence here (ranging from the particular identification of the server -- OpenVMS would be assumed, given where the question has been posed within the ITRC forum heirarchy -- to the scale of the network); the basic TCP/IP addressing problem here is trivial to resolve (yes, trivial even for a non-profit, and the necessary infrastructure may already exist) and I must therefore assume there's more to the network than has been discussed.

Contact your IP IT folk, and ask for assistance. This discussion will inherently involve the IT folk, and experience indicates these folks like to know about these requests and these discussions.

If you are the IT team for this non-profit, then contact me off-line and we can discuss the various attributes, aspects, LAN scale, connected devices, etc.

Stephen Hoffman
HoffmanLabs